Rohr : Chelsea's Abraham Snubbing Nigeria Akin To Looking For A Girlfriend & Putting Her Under Pressure

Published: November 23, 2019

Super Eagles coach Gernot Rohr has revealed that Chelsea striker Tammy Abraham rejected the advances of Nigeria because he was put under pressure from the media and fans to play for the three-time African champions.

The Nigeria Football Federation were unable to secure the commitments of Abraham and his Chelsea teammate Fikayo Tomori before they played cap-tying games for the Three Lions against Czech Republic and Kosovo respectively.

Nigeria have also lost Tottenham Hotspur's Dele Alli, Chelsea's Ross Barkley, Bayern Munich's David Alaba, Basel's Noah Okafor, Southampton's Michael Obafemi to other countries.

Asked what went wrong in getting these footballers to play for Nigeria, Rohr told reporters in Abuja : ''This is a very special case where we have players like Ola Aina, Tammy Abraham, Tomori and a host of others who were in the news concerning their international career.

''If you put too much pressure, it is not good for the players. You must sit down together, speak. We are working on it but it is not good to announce. Give them time to think about it.

''It is always difficult for the players to pick a country to play for. It is like looking for a girlfriend and put her under pressure, she will not come but if you wait for a good moment to speak with her, perhaps she will come.''

Alex Iwobi, Troost-Ekong, Leon Balogun, Joe Aribo, Brian Idowu and Tyronne Ebuehi, who are current members of the Super Eagles squad, were previously eligible to represent other nations before they turned out for Nigeria in competitive games.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel

Photo Credit : chelseafc.com